Justification:
There is a lack of adequate information to make an assessment of extinction risk for this species (lack of a population estimate, and lack of an assessment of the impact of the use as crab-bait).

Peale's dolphins are apparently confined to South America, from the southern tip to about the latitudes of Santiago, Chile (33°S), and northern Argentina (38°S) (Goodall et al. 1997a; Brownell et al. 1999; Goodall 2002). The distribution may extend south well into Drake Passage. They are regularly seen around the Falkland Islands.

No information is available about the abundance of L. australis. However, this species is reportedly the most common cetacean found around the coast of the Falkland Islands and some parts of Chile (Goodall et al. 1997a; Brownell et al. 1999). The dolphins in Beagle Channel, the Magallanes, and southern Tierra del Fuego have been harpooned for crab bait since the 1970s. The scale of this killing was great enough to cause reduced abundance by the late 1980s (Lescrauwaet and Gibbons 1994).

Peale’s Dolphin occupies two major habitats: open, wave-washed coasts over shallow continental shelves to the north; and deep, protected bays and channels to the south and west. In the channels, this is an 'entrance animal', associated with the rocky coasts and riptides at the openings to fjords, where the highest water temperature recorded was 14.7°C. Peale's dolphins show a high degree of association with kelp beds (Macrocystis pyrifera), especially in the channel regions (Viddi and Lescrauwaet 2005). They swim and feed within, inshore and offshore of the kelp forests, using natural channels for movement. Over much of its range Peale's dolphin is sympatric with the dusky dolphin although their usages of habitats are slightly different. These two species are often difficult to differentiate at sea (Goodall et al. 1997b; de Haro and Iniguez 1997). Throughout the northern part of their range, they inhabit the waters of the wide continental shelf off Argentina and the narrower shelf off Chile. Although Peale's dolphins have been observed in waters at least 300 m deep, they appear to prefer shallower coastal waters (Brownell et al. 1999).

Very little is known about the biology of this species. Peale’s dolphins associate with other cetacean species, especially Commerson’s dolphins. Calves have been reported from spring through autumn. The few stomachs that have been examined contained mostly demersal fish, octopus, and squid species that occur in shallow waters and in kelp beds. Some shrimps have also been found in stomachs.

There is considerable concern about numbers of Peale's Dolphins that are hunted with harpoons in the Strait of Magellan and around Tierra del Fuego, where the meat is used as bait in crab traps (Lescrauwaet and Gibbons 1994). Although direct hunting of dolphins has been prohibited in Chile since 1977, crab traps for centolla (southern king crab) Lithodes antarctica and centollon (false king crab) Paralomis granubosa, are still set with dolphin meat. Sielfeld et al. (1977) estimated some 2,350 dolphins, including both L. australis and Cephalorhynchus commersonii, were killed during the 1976/1977 crab-fishing season to bait crab traps used in the Strait of Magellan and the Chilean part of the Beagle Channel; this level of take across a number of years could have had a significant impact on the population. No recent estimates are available on the number of marine mammals killed for bait (Brownell et al. 1999; Lescrauwaet pers. comm.), but it is thought to be lower than in the past (Goodall 2002). Dolphin takes in the Argentinean sector stopped after the early 1980s (Goodall 2002).

Peale's dolphins are incidentally entangled and drowned in nets (Jefferson et al. 1993). There are reports from Queule and Mehuin (Chile), southern Patagonia, northeastern Tierra del Fuego and southern Santa Cruz (Argentina) that local fishermen may incidentally catch Peale's dolphins (Reyes 1991; Brownell et al. 1999). In the northern part of their Pacific range, however, Peale's dolphins seem to be rarely taken (Goodall 2002). Their close dependence on kelp forests may render them vulnerable to habitat loss (Viddi and Lescrauwaet 2005).

Recommended actions for conservation include cooperative research on biology and abundance, more comprehensive statistics on the use of Peale’s dolphin as bait and continued development of alternative sources of bait (the availability of legal bait has already diminished considerably the potential impact of crab-fisheries). Critical neritic habitat should be identified and protected for this species.

Lescrauwaet, A. C. and Gibbons, J. 1994. Mortality of small cetaceans and the crab bait fishery in the Magellanes area of Chile since 1980. Reports of the International Whaling Commission Special Issue 15: 485-494.